MUNCIE, Ind. - - Three runners finished in the top 40 to help the Ball State women's cross country team place eighth among 12 teams at the 2011 Mid-American Conference Cross Country Championships hosted by the Cardinals at the Muncie Elks Country Club.

Toledo won its second-consecutive women's title with a team score of 33, which was a Mid-American Conference Championships meet record score for a 12-team race. Ohio's Juli Accurso paced all runners with a time of 20:35.3.

On the men's side, Eastern Michigan took home its second-straight title (and sixth in the last seven years) with a team score of 68. Central Michigan's Tecumseh Adams won the event with a time of 24:01.6.

In Saturday's MAC Championship meet, the Cardinals were led once again by junior MaryKate Mellen who placed 32nd overall with a career-fast 6K time of 22:16.3. The effort knocked a little over 25 seconds off her previous career-best 6K time of 22:41.8 set two weeks ago at the Ball State Invitational.

Redshirt junior Christine Talhelm was BSU's second-best runner at the meet, placing 35th overall with a career-best time of 22:30.7 which was 35 seconds faster than her previous career-best 6K effort.

Senior Madeline Goheen rounded out Ball State's top three performers, taking home 40th with a career-fast time of 22:41.1. Goheen topped her previous career-best time by a little over 12 seconds.

Overall, the Cardinals top five runners combined for a time of 22:51.8, knocking off over five seconds from the team's combined effort last season. BSU's combined score of 227 was also 47 positions better than a year ago, which helped the Cardinals climb two spots in the team rankings from 10th to eighth.